Fear Insults Hope in the Political Arena

Franklin Delano Roosevelt could not have read Dune. The epic science fiction novel didn't come out until a good 20 years after Mr. Roosevelt died, but it isn't like Dune said anything new. Roosevelt and Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, both knew a thing or two about fear.

And as I listen to people on the streets, to the people in my office, to my colleagues and family and even my own children, I can only conclude that there is without question a lot of fear floating around.

So, according to Roosevelt, this observation—the recognition that fear itself is increasingly present; well, that ought to scare us a lot.

And according to Herbert, with this much fear in the ether, we're committing a kind of mass neuronalcide. That's the best word I can come up with for the slow and insidious extermination of our minds and all that they can do when they work together. I know that a neuron by itself isn't a mind, but I know also that our neurons come together with a hundred trillion connections to create the marvels of the mind, and I know that biologically, fear at best bypasses some of our most noble circuitry, and at worst, fear co-opts our circuitry entirely into the trap of over-simplification.

This is an adaptive response, and we're wrong to blame ourselves for refusing to complicate our thinking when we're frightened. When our brains register fear, we act instinctively and quickly. We don't feel we have the time to take advantage of the gift of higher thinking. Worse even, we think we've thought stuff through when actually we haven't.

Fear fear.

It's scary. It is the mind killer.

Today I got an official e-mail forwarded to me from a colleague explaining that Romney plans to court those who "make millions by jacking up prices at the pump." This colleague wanted me to be afraid of Romney. And you know what? The timing of the already increasing price at my local gas station and this particular note from my colleague can't really be a coincident.

Then, as I read the morning news, I learn that Rick Santorum compared the current state of American affairs to the initially ignored threats of WWII. When he was campaigning for votes he reminded the crowd of the "cancer" Japan was spreading before the War started, of the ways that Europe "was under darkness" without our action and guidance.

I don't dispute for a second the premise that we took too long to pay attention to World War II. But Santorum's message is that by tolerating our current leadership we ignore threats similar to the Third Reich at home. It was a scary and rousing message, even after he took some of it back.

Believe it or not, this post isn't meant to be anti-Santorum or anti-Obama. This post is meant to draw attention to the sleight of hand that politicians from both sides use to garner our favor. They equate fear with hope.

In the communicative property of rhetoric, therefore, if fear is the mind killer and hope is the thing with feathers, then we can conclude that that which kills minds increasingly takes flight in the guise of hope. Virtually every political speech I've read or listened to over the last year has combined these ideas with decreasingly distinct boundaries.

Fear yields hope.

Fear is hope.

Sounds like something Orwell would write.

And this is where I get really frightened. I get really frightened when the much more neurobiologically sophisticated attribute of hope is allowed to mingle in linguistic ambiguity with the very neurobiologically primitive attribute of fear. Both attributes are special human qualities, and we need both to govern our actions.

Still, from the perspective of gray and white matter, the distance of biological wiring from fear to hope doesn't stand a chance when we convince ourselves that our fears are the same as our noble aspirations.

How do we stop this, then? What do we do about a process by which we so easily fall prey to the notion that our fears can be our aspirations, that our primitive terror can yield by itself our most admirable dreams?

First and foremost, we should take note of the process itself and SLOW IT DOWN.

We can resist the frenzy. That's what we do with our children when they're frightened. That's what we do when our friends are freaked out and that what any shrink worth his or her salt does as a first order of business.

Our very psychology, and by that I mean the iterative combination of our unique narrative and our nuanced and astounding neuro-circuitry—the place, in other words, where our brains and our minds meet—is under threat.

Make our leaders answer our questions thoughtfully, and then we owe it to each other to thoughtfully ponder their answers.

Fear is the mind killer, Herbert wrote, but he didn't stop there. His protagonist in Dune is defiant. About fear he proclaims, "I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone, I will turn the inner eye to see its path."

He will use his inner eye to understand fear and what it does. From that meditation he will regain his hope.

Roosevelt understood this also. He refused to allow fear to be confused with hope. Fear, he went on to say in his famous inaugural address, is "aimless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes..."

For the sake of our children, let's resist this terror. Let's resist this paralysis and appeal to our unique human civility, to our capacity for reasoned and respectable discourse.

Excellent article, I like the Dune reference--a great Sci-Fi Book.
The professional politicians and their advisers clearly aren't ignorant to social psychology studies. They repeat-repeat-repeat concise simplistic messages with confidence and to the perceived self interest of their audience, even if their message is not realistic in the slightest. Fear is just too powerful a tool for people to pass up, as you mention--its a "shortcut", inspiring people without the use of fear--is the long path.

Hope too often, as as quoted by Exupery, Hope without a plan is Just a wish. I find most people just wish for things, even things that can't be changed individually or as a country without a time machine.

Another excellent Sci-Fi book, Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card, I think touches on this theme as well--and is a powerful book in terms of its message in regards to fear/vs. Hope at least at the end of the book. They are making the movie, filled with some major stars, I hope it does the book justice--if so its the type of movie that should do more than just entertain, but get people thinking/talking, not merely distracted or emersed in escapism.

Fare thee well-
Mark Twain said, "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

I love Ender's Game, and though the story is dark, the ending is in fact one of hope. I might even like Ender's Shadow better. I've been watching that Ender's Game go in out of film production forever, and I am glad though apprehensive about it finally looking real. This is one movie they could really nail or totally get wrong, and it would be such a shame to miss the chance to have a meaningful discussion about a good adaptation of such a great story. I appreciate your comments

Yes, I think the Enders game book is a hidden gem. I am apprehensive as well, since movies seem to fail often times to capture great sci-fi novels in particular. That genre of movies is full of 'cheesy' movie adaptions. I have Enders shadow on my book shelf, but never read it yet, too many great books to read--too little time...I'll put it on my summer reading list.